A customer purchased 6 shirts priced at $10.99 each, excluding sales tax. How much sales tax did he pay on this purchase

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A customer purchased 6 shirts priced at $10.99 each, excluding sales tax. How much sales tax did he pay on this purchase?

(1) The customer paid a 5 percent sales tax on the total price of the shirts.
(2) The customer paid a total of $11.54 for each shirt, including sales tax.

Answer: D

Source: GMAT Prep
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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Vincen wrote:
Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:56 am
A customer purchased 6 shirts priced at $10.99 each, excluding sales tax. How much sales tax did he pay on this purchase?

(1) The customer paid a 5 percent sales tax on the total price of the shirts.
(2) The customer paid a total of $11.54 for each shirt, including sales tax.

Answer: D

Source: GMAT Prep
Given: A customer purchased 6 shirts priced at $10.99 each, excluding sales tax.
So, the total price of the shirts (excluding sales tax) = (6)($10.99)

Target question: How much sales tax did he pay on this purchase?

Statement 1: The customer paid a 5 percent sales tax on the total price of the shirts.
So the sales tax = 5% of (6)($10.99)
Since we COULD evaluate 5% of (6)($10.99), we COULD answer the target question with certainty (although we would never waste valuable time doing so on test day!)
Statement 1 is SUFFICIENT

Statement 2: The customer paid a total of $11.54 for each shirt, including sales tax
So, the sales tax on ONE shirt = $11.54 - $10.99 = $0.55
So, the sales tax on all 6 shirts = (6)($0.55)
Since we can answer the target question with certainty, statement 2 is SUFFICIENT

Answer: D

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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